1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to kits adapted for use in teaching language, and particularly sentence structure, grammar and standard language usage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Regardless of the language involved, the teaching of sentence structure, grammar and language usage is frequently made difficult by the fact that the concepts and rules involved are abstract, in the sense that they do not readily lend themselves to visual display. Accordingly, when a student is being taught to parse a sentence, or analyse it grammatically, he is required to memorize a number of terms and rules which cannot be visually associated with a sentence under consideration. The result of this is that students tend to find the teaching of sentence structure, grammar and language usage to be both boring and difficult.
The object of the present invention is to facilitate both the teaching and learning of language through the visual demonstration of sentence structure, grammar and usage by means of a three dimensional, colour coded representation. Further, it is an object of the present invention to create interest in the learning of such skills through the provision of a kit which permits, not only a three dimensional colour coded display of sentence structure, grammar and usage, but which also permits such skills to be taught and learned in discrete stages of ever increasing complexity, and in the form of a game which provides both the element of amusement and competition to maintain the interest of a student and facilitate and enhance the learning process.
Attempts have been made over the years to provide visual aids to facilitate the teaching of certain aspects of language, such as spelling, although none of the prior devices would be useful in teaching the grammatical and usage aspects of language in a comprehensive manner. For example, the Bagdassar U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,712, dated Apr. 11, 1972, discloses a teaching aid kit which includes cards and a stand for each pupil and which may be used as an aid in teaching different subjects such as the alphabet, spelling and mathematics at rather elementary levels. For example, the patent contemplates teaching of the alphabet through the use of cards bearing either capital or lower case letters, or both, as well as cards bearing the representation of a physical thing, such as an apple, coupled with the word "apple" written in both capital and lower case lettering with the initial letter "a" being emphasized so that a student may draw a visual association between the physical thing and the letter of the alphabet being taught. Such a kit obviously has an extremely limited utility and is suitable for teaching such subjects as the alphabet, or spelling, at an extremely elementary level.
Another prior patent of interest is the Ginsberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,406, dated Jan. 2, 1979, which discloses a word game wherein a plurality of bodies or game pieces representing letters of the alphabet, and colour coded as to letter type, are placed in the middle of the table. Each player makes a selection of a number of such bodies and mounts them in his rack to spell a certain word with the colour of each body being visible to the other players but not the letters. The other players attempt to guess what word has been spelled, and may ask that selective ones of the bodies be moved so that the letter appearing on it is visible in order to facilitate a guess as to what word has been spelled. There are of course a number of similar games known in the prior art such as the popular word game available under the trade mark "Scrabble" in which players attempt to form words from letter bearing members selected in some random manner. Indeed, the Kuhlman U.S. Pat. No. 3,116,927 issued Jan. 7, 1964 discloses a similar type game in which the game pieces carry entire words, the game pieces being selected in a random manner and utilized by each player to form sentences. Such games are useful in teaching spelling or word usage at a very elementary level, but have essentially no value in teaching a student to analyse a sentence grammatically.
Other prior patents of interest are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,204,931--Gonzalez, issued June 18, 1940; 2,913,137--Alatorone, issued Nov. 17, 1959; 4,084,816--Shafer, issued Apr. 18, 1978; and 4,142,305--Zegel, issued Mar. 6, 1979.